Somethings You Never Forget

Chapter Two

Nine Months Ago

I'll give this to Baxter he'd really spread his net wide trying to capture the Hawkwood family history having written, by snail mail, to hundreds of potential relations. There was little response except for a single letter from Lady Mary Hawkwood.

It read ...

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your communication of the 5th  inst seeking information from my late Husband, Sir Ridley Hawkwood, in respect of whether he was connected to your family.

Regrettably, Sir Ridley passed away last year. He died of a heart attack after a long and debilitating illness. I can categorically inform you that his answer is the negative, NO. My husband was born out of wedlock. His mother, Sharon Charlton, died during his birth at the age of nineteen years old in Oxford general Hospital. His father's name is unknown except to the good Lord. It is my understanding Miss Charlton was born in Warwick but have no supplementary knowledge about her other than what I have stated above.

My Husband was five years old when adopted by Mr and Mrs Grayson Hawkwood. They purchased a farm in Rhodesia and emigrated to that Country returning home to England around nineteen sixty-eight, or thereabouts. Both passed away a few years later of naturel causes.

Sir Ridley was employed by the Diplomatic service until he retired and awarded a knighthood by Her Majesty for services to Charity. However, in my Husband's eyes, so he told me confidentiality, it was a bribe, a gift, thanking him for keeping his mouth closed rather than any other real service he had provided his Country. He had a strange sense of humour.

Because of the nature of his employment, he was closely involved with the Falkland Islands farrago, all his papers, notes and diaries come under the Official Secrets Act and are restricted. However, the same rules do not apply to me, make of it what you will.

My Husband's death was long and lingering, and he experienced severe pain and discomfort. Nevertheless, on his last night he was determined to make a confession and he asked me to write it down. Which surprised me as he was an avowed agnostic and had no time for the Church of England, or any other religious organisation, he called it an over theatrical pantomime. He also hated the smell of incense.

I thought the old buffer was opening up to tell me of some long-ago dalliance but as you will read, it was a very different revelation. I have attached the original and only version for your perusal. Please destroy it immediately.

In my eyes it casts a whole new light on the Falkland Islands war and is strong evidence of duplicitous thinking and behaviour of the Thatcher Government and how all the deaths, on both sides of the conflict, was so unnecessary. I realise now how he felt strongly that a great wrong and a wicked evil had been perpetrated and unburden himself of the secret he had kept for so long.

I miss him awfully with all my heart. I have lost my husband, lover, and friend, none can ever replace him, and I look forward to joining him.

This correspondence will cease forthwith. Do not get in touch with me again. EVER! If you attempt to contact me or any of my family, I will make sure the absolute rigour of the Law will be bought to bear down upon you fully without any hint of sympathy.

Lady Mary Hawkwood

Final Confession of Sir Ridley Hawkwood

Nine months before the commencement of the Falklands War I was a lowly Diplomat working for the Foreign Office. In reality, a mere bag carrier who took contemporaneous shorthand notes of meetings between British Ministers and Foreign dignitaries. Usually, it was hum drum tedious stuff. Not something which even the most avid and single-minded Historians would wet themselves about.